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Filed under: Internet, News, Humor

11 p.m. is officially party time on the Internet

by Jay Hathaway Sep 2nd 2009

A new study has determined that Internet usage is highest at 11 p.m. Eastern Time. Although there's a big jump around 4 p.m. - people at work getting bored, probably - and a gradual increase in traffic starting at 8, it turns out that 11 is peak time. I can definitely speculate about what so many people might be doing online at that hour of the night, but it turns out that I don't have to. The study looked at that, too. If you guessed "porn," you're right! Traffic for pornography (and Internet video in general) plays a big part in the 11 p.m. spike.

While YouTube viewing is at its highest around midnight, gaming peaks at 8 and stays strong until 11. The study's authors speculate that's because a high number of World of Warcraft raids are planned around those times. No word from 7-11 on whether sales of Funyuns and Mtn. Dew see a big increase around 7. The study seems to have used a large enough sample to be reliable: the participating ISPs account for about half of North American traffic.

Tags: internet, nighttime, study, traffic, usage

Filed under: Productivity, iPhone

Track Your Happiness on your iPhone

by Jay Hathaway Aug 2nd 2009

Track Your Happiness is the front end of a research project that seeks to figure out which factors contribute most to our happiness. If you sign up, fill out a 10-minute questionnaire about your life situation, and let the researchers poll you about your mood a few times a day via iPhone, you'll eventually get back a personal report. At first, this seemed a bit intrusive to me, but iPhone users are pretty much glued to their devices anyway, and it's no more trouble than answering a few text messages every day. You can even specify your wake time, bedtime and time zone, so it won't poll you while you're asleep.

The most problematic about the iPhone as a platform is that the study will have no way of determining whether our iPhone contribute to our happiness. It does appear to focus on factors like diet, exercise, financial situation and relationships, though. Each poll is pretty brief. You just position a few sliders to indicate how happy you feel, how self-critical you feel, what you're doing at the moment. Yeah, "making love" is on there, but you'll probably want to wait until you're done to answer the poll, if you really value your happiness. I have yet to use the app long enough to generate a report (it takes 50 polls), but I'm looking forward to seeing what I might find out about myself.



Tags: happiness, iphone, poll, research, study

Filed under: Kids, Productivity, Education

Cramberry: make studying easier with web-based flash cards

by Jay Hathaway Feb 22nd 2009


I wish Cramberry had been around when I was in high school. All those introductory classes, with their requirements of rote memorization, were totally exhausting. Carrying around massive stacks of flash cards with the Latin names of trees written on them is no longer necessary, though. Now you can put your flashcards online with Cramberry.

Cramberry supports multiple sets, and you can make them public, in case you've got study partners you want to share with. To make a card, just enter the text for the front and back. Sorry, art history students, but there's no image support yet. Once you've got your cards set up, Cramberry will quiz you. The best feature is that the cards you're getting wrong most often show up more frequently, to give you extra practice. Cramberry threw a few php errors during my test, but it works smoothly for the most part, and it's a great concept.

Tags: cramberry, flash-card, memory, school, study

Filed under: Kids, Productivity

StudyProf flashcards for, well, studying

by Christina Clark Jul 22nd 2008

flashcardsIf you have a lot of studying to do, StudyProf FlashCards might be the buddy you've been looking for. The program, which has a free trial version available, allows you to create flashcards in a relatively simple environment. Give your card a title and an image or audio then virtually flip the card and place the information you are trying to learn on the back.

After making a set of cards you can file them in your card box and retrieve them and replay them, slideshow style with simple mouse clicks.

If you are studying something specific, StudyProf creators, Felling Software Development, has also created the Flashcard Archive to make it easier to download precreated sets of flashcards (though only the English to German flashcards are currently available).

Studying is never a lot of fun, but at least if your typing is better than your handwriting StudyProf gives you an alternative method to get the job done.

[Via download.com]

Tags: flashcards, school, study

Filed under: Internet, News

Study: Digital divide is alive and well in the US

by Brad Linder May 18th 2008

Lack of tech experience
You know that blank stare you got from your parents the first time you gave them your email address? Apparently you're not alone. According to a new survey from Park Associates, nearly one fifth of all heads of household in the US have never used email. And 20 million households are without internet access. That's about 18% of American households.Here are a few more fun facts:
  • Only 7 percent of those 20 million households plants to sign up for internet service within the next year.
  • Almost 33 % of heads of household have never created a document on a computer
  • Half of the folks who say they've never used email are over 65
  • More than half of those who haven't ever used email have no post-secondary education
The study did find some good news (if you count the fact that more and more people are spending their days in front of a computer screen good news). The number of "disconnected" households dropped from 29 percent in 2006.

[via CNET]

Tags: digital-divide, park-associates, study, survey

Filed under: Office, Productivity

FlashcardExchange: create and study flashcards

by Todd Ritter Feb 25th 2008

FlashcardExchange
FlashcardExchange is a flashcard-sharing site that lets you create and study digital forms of everyone's favorite 3x5 cards. The directory already has a large list of subjects, from elementary math to high-level pharmacology.

The flashcards are available to study for free via the website, and if you shell out $19.95 (one-time fee) for the full membership, you can print the flashcards and export them to Word or Excel. With a free account you can create your own flashcards by typing or text/Excel import. You can share your flashcard sets, which are maintained via the "My Flashcards" feature, and play a memory game with them.

FlashcardExchange can be helpful for test preparation, certification exam review, and language learning.

[Via MusicBizGuy]

Tags: flashcards, learn, study, Technology in Education, TechnologyInEducation

Filed under: Business

Study: A small minority of people contribute a vast amount of ad clicks

by Simon Kerbel Feb 14th 2008





We like studies here at Download Squad. There's a certain mystique about them. Such cold, hard data. So official-sounding, yet prone to error, prone to being misused as a weapon rather than as a learning tool.

Here's a new study to chew on. According to this study, a meager 6% of people online are contributing 50% of the clicks to display advertisements. Yes, you read that right.

This 6% are a unique bunch. In the study, they are described as "Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000, who are relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites."

These so-called heavy clickers are turning the online advertising world upside down. A successful online advertising campaign was previously measured by the amount of clicks; according to this data, however, clicks can no longer be used as the ideal measure. The study also found that ad-clicking was no guarantee of brand awareness or brand loyalty.

So what does this mean for the online advertisers? Here's a list of potential reactions:
  • Overreact: A study like this often causes a knee-jerk reaction. Could a new pay-per-click scheme arise from the ashes? What would something like that look like?
  • Stay the course: This has a high chance of being followed, simply because moving advertisers to action is like steering a humongous barge. You turn the wheel, but it might be a long time before the ship starts to turn.
  • Discount the study: Here's what we'd say: "studies of this magnitude are prone to error, human or otherwise, and no study is without its bias. Therefore, we choose to ignore the study and its results completely."
Whatever the reaction, the study is worth a read by the use of catch phrases and new nicknames alone. Where else can you find such monikers as "Natural Born Clickers," or sayings like "the click is dead?"

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Tags: online advertisement, OnlineAdvertisement, study

Filed under: Business, News

Online newspapers report record viewers, trees everywhere rejoice

by Simon Kerbel Jan 29th 2008

According to a new report from the Newspaper Association of America, online readership for newspaper web sites grew by more than 3.6 million in 2007, up 6 percent from 2006. So, in spite of traditional newspaper sales drying up, the newspaper companies are finding ways to grow their readership.

At this point, you might be asking, "what's a newspaper?" It's that simple collection of ink on thin paper that sometimes waits for you on your stoop and is often found in spring-loaded machines that will either take your quarter, or, if you're not fast enough, your hand.

Okay, so maybe we haven't completely forgotten what a newspaper is, but we do know that hardly any of us read them anymore. Why read something that's a whole day old when you can get minute-to-minute news from the web?

Thankfully, newspaper companies have gotten wind of the shift from traditional print media to online media. Many large newspapers have made most if not all of their content available online; and, as the study shows, the move has paid off. People still trust the traditional news media, the traditional news names; they just wanted the news delivered through a different, more expedient medium.

In the last quarter of 2007, 39% of web viewers visited newspaper Web sites. How about you?

[via Communication Overtones]

Tags: newspapers, online, study

Filed under: Internet, Video, Blogging, E-mail, web 2.0

Study finds girls eclipse boys in photo posting, other obvious web facts

by Danny Mendez Dec 20th 2007

Study finds girls eclipse boys in photo posting, other obvious web factsThe Pew Internet & American Life Project just posted its findings on teens and the web, and it seems to have uncovered much of what we already know about the internet. Here's a bullet point summary of the major findings. With each point, we'll try to name site/service who's users would stereotypically match.
  • AIM: 93% of American teens (ages 12-17) use the web. Many of them use the web to interact with others.
  • YouTube: 64% of online teens create online content, up from 57% in 2004.
  • Livejournal (bad poetry): 39% of online teens share their artistic creations online.
  • MySpace: 27% of online teens keep a personal web page.
  • LOLcats?: 26% of online teens "remix" content they find online.
  • WoW: 49% of online teens play games online.
  • America: Teens are more likely to own desktop computers over any other type of "gadget." This one was almost surprising.
  • Facebook: Social network communicators are more "intense" communicators.
  • Facebook: Girls eclipse boys in photo posting.
  • Nintendo Wii: 31% of teens spend time time with friends outside of school every day.
  • High School: 34% of teens spend time with friends outside of school several times a week
To be honest, a lot of this is pretty obvious. We shouldn't need a study to find out chat rooms suck, teens tend to own computers, and girls are more likely than guys to post photos online. Regardless, there's a lot more information where that came from, so if you'd like to learn more about the online habits of today's teenagers, make sure to check out the full study.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: email, facebook, instant messaging, InstantMessaging, internet, myspace, social, social networking, SocialNetworking, study, survey, teen, teenager, text messaging, texting, TextMessaging, web

Filed under: Internet, News, Social Software

Department of obvious research: Facebook isn't real life

by Brad Linder Sep 11th 2007

Facebook You know those 15,274 friends you have on Facebook, MySpace and other social networks? We know you're going to find this hard to believe. But they're not actually your friends. Well, not close friends anyway. We know, it's shocking, but it turns out that if you asked 15,268 of them if you could borrow a car, odds are they'd say no.

Well, while that may have seemed obvious to most of us, that didn't stop British psychologist Will Reader from conducting research on the topic. And he found that you probably have about the same number of close friends online as you do off. And 90 percent of your online friends will be people you've met in real life.

Where social networks excel is at making it easy to keep in touch with old friends and colleagues with whom you might otherwise lose touch. You might not send your casual acquaintance from 7th grade an email very often. But you might leave a message on his Facebook wall.

Reader found that face to face communication is essential in establishing trust in relationships. So even if you do make friends through social networks, often through friends of friends, you're only likely to become "close" friends if you meet in real life.

Keep in mind, this research relates to social networks. Reader's making no claims that you can't make good friends with people you meet online. He's just saying that it's unlikely you'll do it by frequenting MySpace.

Tags: facebook, friends, myspace, research, study

Filed under: Internet, News

Study: you probably have 880 MP3s and 100 PDF files on your PC

by Brad Linder Aug 3rd 2007

comScore study
Internet research firm comScore says the average U.S. computer had an average of 3GB worth of MP3 files, and over 300MB worth of WMV (Windows Media Video) files. The study looked at computer hardware and software configurations in April. Here are a few other interesting findings:
  • Hard drive capacity is on the rise. Over the first four months of the year, the number of computers with hard drives under 30GB shrunk, while the percentage of computers with 100GB+ hard drives rose.
  • Users with the largest MP3 collections are more likely to spend time online gambling, gaming, shopping, chatting, and doing just about any other kind of online leisure activity that was tracked
  • Users with large collections of Microsoft Word Documents were more likely to spend time online in business related pursuits like travel, finance, and shipping.
So take a look at what's on your hard drive. If you've got too many Office documents and not enough MP3s, odds are you're spending too much time working. On the other hand, judging by the sheer number of MP3s taking up space on the average computer, it doesn't look like that's really much of a problem for most Americans.
[via Information Week]

Tags: comscore, internet use, InternetUse, research, study

Filed under: Internet, News

Downloaders Anonymous: We're addicted, it's official

by Ryan Carter Oct 23rd 2006

internet addictAn article on NewScientistTech via Slashdot alerts us that many people these days are addicted to the Internet, and may be as clinically ill as alcoholics. Apparently Internet addicts try to hide their online activities and go online to get rid of a bad attitude (most likely trolling blogs), a habit that researchers say is dangerous and isn't healthy. First off, I thought most of us who are "addicted to the Internet" already knew we were, and I don't know if it is such a bad thing in many cases. Sure, there are times when it goes way too far, and mental help is required to fix the problem. Severe cases do exist where there is no end in sight. On the other hand, for all of us only mildly addicted, I think we are addicted because work requires it or because of our individual interests, and it can be a good thing. The lead author of the study, Elias Aboujaoude says "In a sense, they're using the Internet to self-medicate..." I don't consider this a bad thing, at least we are being medicated. It can be awfully helpful after a stressful work day to come home and surf, browse, read Download Squad and check on the latest news. I find writing code is therapeutic as well. I personally think that the reason we want to hide our Internet habits is because it is the very last place we can control a degree of privacy. With the whirlwind that is our busy life, it is comforting to know that you can have somewhere to go to drop everything and just be who you are, even it is on the inside of your head and stored behind a password. This article was an interesting read, so if you have some time to be Internet addicted today, check it out.

Tags: addict, bandwidth, drink, internet, study

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Apple, Microsoft

Microsoft distrust could double Apple's market share

WindowsMacby Jordan Running Apr 14th 2006

Bill GatesAccording to a study done by Forrester Research, widespread consumer distrust of Microsoft could lead to massive defections that could help Apple double its PC market share. In the study, which was done before Apple's switch to Intel, 5.4 million households gave Microsoft a rating of "mistrust a lot" or "mistrust a bit," and Forrester says that "compared with all Microsoft users, these at-risk users have higher income, are much more likely to be male and are bigger online spenders. These households know they run Microsoft software but would be just as happy to leave it behind—if they could." These users "affluent, optimistic about technology and brand aware," fitting right in with Apple's user base.

Tags: apple, forrester, mac, macintosh, microsoft, study

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So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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